45 Holy Other - Feel Something
Another ender from the EP of the year so far - Manchester's Holy Other may seem shrouded in a darkened hue, but the triumphant smashes of electronic percussion on this track prove he has more eyes to the sky than to the ground."
William Grant

44 Florrie - Begging
I am not the sort of person who particularly likes to draw attention to herself while out in public, but if you come to Norwich there is a good chance I will be listening to this while I am At Large. What I will probably do is not sing it as you approach me on the pavement. But once you are behind me and I cannot see your face anymore I will RWD to the chorus and sing ‘Begging Me’ out loud. I’m kind of carefree.
Wendy Roby

43 KATY B featuring MS DYNAMITE - Lights On.
Features Ms Dynamite" would have most people running for cover. Not us, as not only does 'Lights On' relaunch the one-time Mercury Music prize winner as a credible artist, it also highlights why Ms Brien is the best popstar Blighty has produced in years.
Dominic Gourlay

42 Young Magic – You With Air
Do try to get someone to snog you while this is playing very loud. I hesitate to used the word ‘swirly’ because ‘swirly’ has been given a bad rep by the chillwavers, but ‘You With Air’ is swirly. But not in the sort of way that makes you imagine a hippie girl dancing in an ‘ethnic’ skirt made of twigs.
Wendy Roby

40 Fear of Men - spirit house (cassette mix)
Not out till August 2011 on Italian Beach Babes and as yet underhyped. But there it is an eerily catchy guitar song about liars and dreaming with pretty backing vocals.
Alex Hegazy

39 The Antlers - Putting The Dog To Sleep
A glorious slow-dance to end a near perfect response to the acclaimed
Hospice', Silberman and co. show that their romantic hearts are beating just as fast as ever with the closer of 'Burst Apart'." William Grant

38 Friendly Fires – Live Those Days
It was a close run between this and ‘Hurting’ for my fave song of the year so far. But I’ll go for this: a ridiculously massive tune drenched in pool-side rave euphoria that makes me want to drink cocktails and copy Ed’s hip wiggling thing.
Dannii Leivers

37 Thurston Moore - 'Benediction'
Like the Judas Dylan in reverse, Thurston Moore bravely emasculated himself of his signature electric guitar skree, roped in Beck to produce, and somehow managed to cook up one of the most sublime acoustic/string records since Nick Drake popped his clogs. Is there anything this man can’t do? J.R. Moores

35 Here We Go Magic – Backwards Time
If I was working in HMV and if it was before they decided there was no money in records because all people want to do is pretend to shoot pretend people on ‘gaming chairs’ (‘gaming chairs’ = literally the worst thing ever invented), I would recommend The January EP to the sort of people who like Ariel Pink / good things.
Wendy Roby

34 Panda Bear – ‘Benfica’
If there remained any shred of doubt over the bona-fide genius of Noah Lennox, then ‘Tomboy’’s mystifying, otherworldly brilliance conclusively confirmed a remarkable, rare talent.
Dan Cooper-Gavin

33 Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast
Its like flicking thru an increasingly psychopathic and benevolent and dramatic and baffling photo scrapbook, no chorus, no key change - not even a chord progression shift as far as I remember - just a simple bit of masterfully evasive songwriting. Amazing.
Jazz Monroe

32 PJ Harvey - The Glorious Land
Selected by Andrzej Lukowski

31 Guillemots - Dancing In The Devil's Shoes
From the (in my opinion) seriously underrated 'Walk The River', this song, like the rest of the album, is definitely not an easy listen. It is, however, Fyfe Dangerfield at his songwriting peak, daring you to "come watch me hit the ground/With the most fantastic sound" while at the same time making you feel like you're in the clouds he's singing about.
Krystina Nellis

30 Vessels – Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute
Somewhat reminiscent of A Perfect Circle vocally and melodically but far more texturally diverse; there's a great sense of atmosphere throughout and an intriguingly unsettling title too.
Michael Brown

29 Metronomy - She Wants
As much fun as it's possible to have while employing a fretless bass, unless of course you happen to be Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan.
Chris Trout

28 Kurt Vile - Puppet to the Man
The record’s packed with beautiful acoustic ditties rendered in a wash of smog but this anomaly turns me something feral. Punk-fucking-rocking don’t-give-a-shitting mind-melting RAWK: ’ HI GUYS KURT HERE - CAN YOU HEAR ME GUYS? I AM MOANING ABOUT THE MAN! YEAH! BUT NOT REALLY BECAUSE HE IS HELPING ME WITH MY LIFE AND THINGS! SO ARE MY FAMILY LOVE YOU SIS!’. I don’t totally understand what he’s on about actually but I think he does so it’s cool, right?
Jazz Monroe

27 Found - Machine Age Dancing
Definitely my #1 from 2011. I still can't fathom why this song didn't become massive when it was released. It has everything. I'm genuinely perplexed. The album factorycraft is great, but it's like going to dinner with the Baldwin brothers. Sure they can all hold your attention for a sustained period of time, but there's a reason Alec is sitting at the head of the table." http://found.bandcamp.com/album/factorycraft Andrew Kennedy

26 Julianna Barwick - Prizewinning (from The Magic Place)
too braindead right now to think of a description different from the one I wrote in my DiS review - called it The Magic Place's standout track, with 'the brilliant addition of a minimal techno beat charging away beneath those heavenly choirs of Julianna.'
Eli Lee

25 Ford & Lopatin - Joey Rogers
The protagonist of the duo's Channel Prussure album and a shameless ode to everything genius about the 80's electronic boom. Glorious.
William Grant

24 Jamie Woon - Shoulda
I really like most of this whole record, seeing as it is essentially
the dubstep produced successor to where Timberlake left off, but this
track in particular leaves hairs standing vertical.
Sean Thomas

23 tune-yards - Killa (from W H O K I L L)
Everything's in place here; the sexy vocals, the in-jokes ("I'm sooo HIP!"), the unashamed cheesy grooviness - may not be the most inventive track on the album but it's irresistible to dance to, this one, and therefore wins.
Eli Lee

22 Mogwai – Rano Pano
One riff spun out for five minutes in true Mogwai style, but it’s developed in such a precise, well-judged manner, it doesn’t need anything more. Those fuzzed-up guitar tones are also quite, quite wonderful.
Michael Brown

21 Tom Vek – A Chore
Those echoey synth stabs and clattering drums!! Five years is a long time to wait for anything, but this song was worth it.
Dannii Leivers

19 James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
Uncertainty' captured in a churning swell of synthesised self-pity. If only the album had been more like this.
Robert Leedham

18 Kate Bush – 'This Woman's Work':
Given the superficial nature of the tweaks made to the tracks from The Sensual World which featured on Director's Cut and the attachment to those original recordings, the new versions of 'Deeper Understanding', Never Be Mine' and the title track are inessential (personally speaking) , but not unwelcome reworkings. However, the extraordinary and drastic overhaul given to 'This Woman's Work' makes the whole endeavour truly worthwhile. Neither better nor worse than the surging melodrama of the original, instead it's minimalist arrangement amplifies the desolation and longing in a whole new, yet equally affecting manner.
Neil Ashman

17 The National - Exile Vilify
A classic weepy one from The National. The kind of track that causes you blub into your keyboard because "all life is shit."
Robert Leedham

16 Bright Eyes – ‘Triple Spiral’
In which Conor Oberst finally casts off the feverishness of Bright Eyes’ earlier years in favour of a less tortured, more direct aesthetic.
Dan Cooper-Gavin

15 Destroyer - Bay of Pigs
Just watch the writers try and pin this band down. There's an infinite list of they 'sound a bit like...' comparisons in reviews, but rarely do the same suggestions recur. If you can think of a band laying down a dense stoner groove softened by a crooning, vaguely decipherable girls voice, you're there.
Tom Perry

14 WILD BEASTS - Bed Of Nails
Whether it be euphoric whimsy or Eurodisco, this standout from the excellent ‘Smother’ is just one of ten reasons why Cumbria’s finest will undoubtedly top the polls when the end of year lists are drawn out.
Dominic Gourlay

11 Fever Ray - The Wolf
As much as it the Gang Gang Dance record was good and all that, this track from Sweden’s finest blew their efforts clean out of the water. Brooding, menacing, loud and incredibly amazing.”
Sean Thomas

10 Connan Mockasin – Forever Dolphin Love
This does not actually get going for about four minutes, which goes against absolutely everything I believe in. Ergo, Connan Mockasin makes the kind of music that makes you reassess all of the thinkings in your woman-mind. And while I should hate him for that, I do not. Ergo. It’s Latin.
Wendy Roby

Ambition and vision backed up by talent. Great song, great album. His questionable choice in jumpers is the only complaint from my corner.
Andrew Kennedy

9 Austra – Beat and the Pulse
What I'd imagine the sugar plum fairy will be danced to in 2118.
Sean

8 The Antlers - 'Corsicana'
Mind-meldingly gorgeous. I listened to it about 10 times in a row and cried every single time. On the bus. I bet even the burliest geezer would have the same reaction in the face of lyrics like ‘We should close that window we both left open now’. Simply, utterly beautiful.
Krystina Nellis

7 FACTORY FLOOR - R.E.A.L.L.O.V.E.
The arbitrary point where all four genres of post-punk, seventies disco, experimental noise and future rave coagulate like a musical Venn Diagram.
Dominic Gourlay

6 EMA - The Grey Ship
This has been festering in the TV static of Moldy Peaches’ front-room but grows over it’s seven minutes and eighteen seconds into Deerhunter peering through a stain-glassed window, mouth agape, as Patti Smith and Ariel Pink jam.
Sean

5 Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – ‘The Copper Top’
Some songs are so disarmingly beautiful, they bring time to a standstill as you stand slack-jawed in awe at their impossible majesty. ‘The Copper Top’ is certainly gorgeous enough to join this pantheon, though rather than freezing time, it deals instead with its painful, inexorable progress – ageing, decay and death. Rather than just shimmering prettily, ‘The Copper Top’ kicks you in the guts.

Perhaps the track’s potency lies in its simplicity – upon the foundation of Wells’ cyclical, plaintive piano, Moffat’s monologue manages to paint rich tableaux with the most economical of brush strokes. Maybe the track’s sucker punch is its bittersweet humour – Moffat’s quibbling over the colour of his suit (“Looks black to me…”) feels both amusingly throwaway and gravely poignant. But ultimately, the key is probably the track’s universal reach – from the recognisable mundanity of the day-to-day detail, it follows that the fate of the oxidising roof is one to which we’re all condemned. A defining point in the careers of both of its creators, ‘The Copper Top’ delivers everything that truly great art should.

4 Metronomy - Everything Goes My Way
Part of what makes the sea so bewitching is that it is always unknowable, an impossible large being, with only the ripples of its cloak visible. It’s the same thing with ‘Everything Goes My Way’. On the surface, everything seems to be so joyful. What could be happier than a a couple declaring how happy they are that they are back together? (“It feels so good to have you back my love / I’m in love again) Repeated listens, however, darken the mood. Despite the apparent rekindling of the romance, things aren’t perfect for this reunited couple. With the constant declarations of being back in love, it’s almost as if the singer might be convincing herself of something she doesn’t quite believe any more. Even the backing vocals sound like sobbing. It is within the conflict between those espousals and the between-the-lines lack of faith that the enticing nature of the song lies. That the music that backs this intriguing little vignette could only be English, a classic style of breezy, summery pop, only adds to the appeal.

3 Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum
Nicola Roberts reinforced her position as best-one-out-of-Girls Aloud with this barnstorming Diplo-produced effort. Major Lazer-meets-Daphne & Celeste turned out to be exactly what the world wasn’t waiting for (it reached 27 in the singles chart), but it’s nevertheless brilliant and deserves to be every discerning listener’s pop song of the year.
Adam Boult

2 Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar The brilliance of Glass Jar is all in the build. A narcoleptic haze of cymbals and android effects sets the journey in gear, creeping and crackling with murderous expectancy. Through this suspense-riddled carp pushes a crisp synth flourish that escalates as a vivid pool of intergalactic keys and jackknife percussion, juddering and grinding to an uncontainable, untameable pace. Perfectly weighted, it’s a cut that scales rhythmic vicissitudes with astonishing ambition. Quite likely the most incessant and oblique track of the year, this is the sound of Gang Gang Dance at its exhilarating best.